He [a colonel in the Georgia Guard] intimated that the missionaries were the authors of those articles, and he blamed me for claiming them as mine. He requested me to make this correction, which I have done now according to my best understanding if his language. While various other advocates of removal and the Georgia Guard continued to equate the Cherokees as uncivilized and uncultured barbarians, Boudinot portrayed the Cherokees as a civilized people in order to effluence society. Boudinots reasoning stemmed from the fact that if whites called them savages, it would be all the excuse they needed to justify removal. On account of this, the Cherokee Phoenix devoted space to upholding the Cherokees progress. Worchester often promoted education by publishing lessons on sentence structure, spelling, conjugation, pronouns, and devoted many columns to the literacy of the new alphabet. The unique achievements of the Cherokee were also a favorite of Boudinot. These articles promoted the fact that the Cherokees had adopted the plantation system, European tools, modes of dress, and mastered the English language. In this light, the Phoenix showed Cherokee life similar to that of nearby white settlers. Nonetheless, Boudinot realized that without the support of the United States, the Cherokees would never truly be a respected country, and on May 31, 1834 the Cherokee Phoenix ceased publication. In 1835, 500 leading Cherokees agreed to cede tribal territory in exchange for $5,700,00 and land in Indian Territory, and later several of that group were assassinated. In August of that same year Stand Watie of the Georgia Guard confiscated the Phoenixs abandoned printing press, while federal troops began to forcibly evicting the Cherokees. Approximately one thousand escaped to the North Carolina mountains, purchased land and were incorporated into that state. The Phoenix became a principal voice for the nation, and met its go...
